News

Museum's Galleries to Come Alive with the Art of Music to Honor Lost Musicians

CHICAGO, November 29, 2011 – The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) will mark Day With(out) Art and World AIDS Day, December 1, 2011, by adding the art of music to its galleries of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. Recordings of secular and sacred music composed by musicians who died in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will be featured throughout the day.

Societies celebrated by the Martin D'Arcy Collection lost many artists and musicians to terrifying pandemics. The earliest musician to be commemorated at LUMA is Jacob Obrecht (1457/8–1505), the leading composer of church masses in his day. He died during an outbreak of plague in Ferrara, Italy. Recordings of Obrecht's Missa Caput and Salve Regina for four and six voices will be played in the galleries all day. One of the worst outbreaks of plague occurred in Milan, where it fueled the religious mission of St. Charles Borromeo. It carried off every male member of the artist Caravaggio's family, and it killed the composer Nicola Vicentino (1511–1575/6), whose setting of Petrach’s poem Solo e Pensoso (Alone and filled with care) will also be played in the galleries.

In past years, LUMA has marked World AIDS Day by withdrawing works of art, closing winged altarpieces, and deflating an inflatable Buddha during the exhibition The Missing Peace. One’s temporary loss of access to the art commemorated the loss of so many creative souls to AIDS.

This year, LUMA invites its visitors to celebrate humankind's invincible creative spirit, to commemorate all who have died from plagues and pandemics, and to cherish the contributions of those in our midst who live with HIV and AIDS.

Further details of the composers and their music are available on the museum's website at LUC.edu/luma.

About LUMAOpened in 2005, the Loyola University Museum of Art is dedicated to exploring, promoting, and understanding art and artistic expression that illuminates the enduring spiritual questions of all cultures and societies. As a museum with an interest in education and educational programming, LUMA reflects the University’s Jesuit mission and is dedicated to helping people of all creeds explore the roots of their faith and spiritual quests. Located at Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus, the museum occupies the first three floors of the University’s historic Lewis Towers on Chicago’s famous Michigan Avenue. For more information, visit the museum’s website at LUC.edu/luma.

Free with proper identification to members, Loyola University Chicago faculty and staff, Loyola students, clergy members, employees of other museums, youth 17 and under, and active military members and their families.

For general inquiries, please contact us at 312.915.7600 or luma@luc.edu.